Rule of Law – The Empty Chair – Stuffed GPT

Rule of Law — The Empty Chair

A 2025 retrospective on the slow-motion demolition of the rule of law — and why it must return.

1. A Year When the Rules Became Optional

Once upon a time, “international law” was at least a costume everyone agreed to wear. By 2025, it’s hanging in a dusty locker somewhere between “multilateralism” and “politeness at UN summits.”

Great powers act with impunity, smaller states mimic their worst behavior, and international courts are treated like a mute referee at a wrestling match with no rules and fireworks.

Warning: When international law becomes a suggestion, justice becomes a performance — and the world turns into a bad improv show with missiles.

2. The Great Unraveling (2020–2025)

The disintegration didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow drip — a series of tolerated exceptions that eventually became the rule. Sanctions for some, silence for others. Principles when convenient, procedural fog when not.

“The moment you let one elephant dance on the carpet, everyone else wants to wear tap shoes.”

Phase	Behavior	Outcome
Early 2020s	“Exceptional circumstances” used to excuse violations	Rules become flexible
2023–2024	Selective outrage depending on flag color	Credibility erodes
2025	Power replaces principle entirely	Norms collapse; hypocrisy becomes policy

3. Why This Matters

The rule of international law isn’t some dusty academic dream — it’s the world’s seatbelt. You don’t put it on because you expect a crash. You put it on because crashes happen when the overconfident are at the wheel.

Without rules, the strong do what they want and the weak mimic them.
Without accountability, outrage becomes theatre.
Without trust in law, every promise is a coin toss.

4. The Myth of “Strategic Exception”

In 2025, politicians perfected a deadly rhetorical trick: breaking rules while simultaneously claiming to defend them. This is known in polite circles as “strategic exception.” In less polite circles, it’s called cheating.

Strategic exceptions don’t just weaken international law — they delete its operating system.

5. Why a Return to Rule-Based Order Is Not Naïve

Demanding the rule of law is not idealism — it’s basic hygiene for civilization. When transgressions are sanctioned:

The powerful must explain themselves instead of narrating reality.
Victims have recourse beyond hashtags.
Small states don’t need to arm themselves like dystopian prepper colonies.

True rule-based order doesn’t depend on who breaks the rule — it depends on the certainty that someone will be held accountable.

6. The Return Clause

Enforce law without exception. Flags don’t grant immunity.
Stop applauding strategic ambiguity. It’s just moral evasiveness in a suit.
Rebuild institutions to withstand tantrums from the powerful.
Sanction transgressions. All of them. Yes, even the uncomfortable ones.

7. Epilogue: The Empty Chair

Somewhere in The Hague, a chair meant for accountability remains empty. It’s not because no one broke the law. It’s because too many people agreed to look the other way.

The chair is waiting.

“The rule of law isn’t a utopia. It’s the bare minimum.”